[Opinion] Blood, Wine and Tears

“The beautiful wine in the golden goblets is the blood of the people, the delicacies on jade trays the fat of the people. When candle wax drops the tears of the people drop, and where voices are raised in song, the voices of the people rise up in resentment.” This is a famous poem in the pansori “Chun-hyang-ga,” which is set in the time of King Suk-jong during the Joseon Dynasty and is about the love of Lee Mong-ryong and Sung Chun-hyang and the extortion of corrupt officials.

Disguised as a beggar, the royal secret investigator, Lee Mong-ryong, recites this poem at the birthday banquet of evil Namwon county magistrate, Byun Hak-do, and frightens the gathered officials out of their wits.

The former governor of Gyeonggi Province, Sohn Hak-kyu, posted an article on his homepage on August 27 upbraiding the current government’s irresponsibility and immorality regarding the “Sea Story” situation. He said, “Was there really nothing else to extort than the blood of the poor people?” calling the government a “bloodsucking, immoral government.”

Considering the fact that he has spent the last 60 days after resigning from the office of governor roaming the country starting from the bottom of society to get an idea of the circumstances the people are in, we could say that his words represent collective public rage.

The rulings on the arcade owners who were arrested on gambling business operation charges show that they were raking in money by the bushel, making a monthly average of a few hundred million won. According to the Korea Game Development & Promotion Institute, a total of 26.7 trillion won worth of gift coupons (5.3 billion coupons) used as prizes were issued between the 11 months between August of last year and June of this year. The exchanging houses are estimated to have made over 5.0 trillion won just for changing these coupons to cash. Since most arcade customers are said to be common people with small incomes, this means that all this money came from the pockets of the poorer people.

In 2002, President Roh Moo-hyun was elected by claiming to stand for the common people. However, skyrocketing housing prices and economic difficulties during his term are said to be making the people the biggest victims. President Roh invited six Uri Party members of the National Assembly to Cheong Wa Dae for a banquet. During the dinner, which lasted for over three hours, the President is said to have drunk enough to become completely drunk. Would it be too much to say that the wine and food the “people’s” president took that day was the blood and tears of the people?

Kwon Soon-taek, Editorial Writer, maypole@donga.com